Tobiko is flying-fish roe — the tiny, glassy, brilliant-orange eggs of flying fish, cured in a salt brine and prized above all for their crunch. Each egg is a translucent bead only about 0.5–0.8 mm across, far smaller than salmon roe (ikura) and even a touch smaller than sturgeon caviar, and the eggs give a fine, sandy, popping crackle between the teeth followed by a clean, salty-sweet, faintly smoky-marine burst. A sushi-bar standard in Japan and abroad, tobiko is the crunchy orange coating on the outside of California and dragon rolls, a bright gunkan-maki topping, and a jewel-like garnish; the natural cure gives it a signature red-orange colour, and it is routinely tinted into a rainbow of hues — black with squid ink, green with wasabi, gold-yellow with yuzu, red with chilli or beet. It is a distinct roe in its own right, not to be confused with the cheaper, paler, softer capelin roe (masago) for which it is often substituted, nor with the much larger ikura or true sturgeon caviar.